Default Image Place of Worship has been
Demolished.
Image by courtesy of
openclipart.org

General Baptist Chapel (Demolished),
Church Street,
Appleby, Derbyshire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Chapel did NOT have a graveyard.

Note: any church within an urban environment may have had its graveyard closed after the Burial Act of 1853. Any new church built after that is unlikely to have had a graveyard at all.

Church History

This Place of Worship was founded in 1820, but we understand it was closed before 1939.

The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/414/1/5/13) indicates it was built in 1820, as a separate building used exclusively as a place of worship by a General Baptist congregation. There were free sittings for 20, and standing room for 30; however on March 30th there were an estimated 80 worshippers to the evening service, so one does wonder how they all crammed in! This was not unusual either, as the average congregation to morning services was also given as 80.

The return was completed by John Barnes, who described himself as "Minister or pastor". His address was "Austrey Near Atherston". The 1851 Census (HO 107/2013/0679) records him in Austrey as a "Baptist Minister house holder" and a Widower, aged 74, with a Housekeeper, Ann Walker, aged 39 and unmarried, and a Visitor named William Booth, a Farmers Son. Austrey is about 3 miles south from Appleby.

Old Maps show the Chapel as a small square building; however it was bigger than it might appear, as there are photographs in the History section of Appleby Magna Village website, contrasting the inside in 1924, and in 1974, by which time it had become derelict. The website also describes the (most interesting) history of its foundation and building, in 1820, by William Hear, who had returned to his native parish to "spread the word", after living in Birmingham, where he had been a member of the Particular Baptist Church, in Bond Street. It was closed, their account days, during the inter-war years, but was "used from 1940-57 to provide relief for overcrowding in the small Church School".

Denomination

Now or formerly General Baptist.

If more than one congregation has worshipped here, or its congregation has united with others, in most cases this will record its original dedication.

Maps

This Chapel was located at OS grid reference SK3140209605. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• General Baptist Chapel (Demolished), Appleby shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Appleby shown on a Google Map.
• Streetmap.co.uk (arrow on map shows the Place of Worship's location) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Bing (Ordnance Survey option) (verified 2018-10-13)
• Bing Maps ('Bird's Eye' View) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Ordnance Survey "getamap" (NB some of the 'Change Map' options may require a subscription) (verified 2018-10-15)
• OpenStreetMap (Maps © OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA) (verified 2018-10-15)
• A Vision of Britain Through Time - useful for Boundary Changes (verified 2018-10-15)
• www.magic.gov.uk (Modern Maps with various overlays) (verified 2018-10-15)

Resources

I have found many websites of use whilst compiling the information for this database. Here are some which deserve mention as being of special interest for Appleby, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• Lying on the edge of the ancient boundary between the kingdom of Mercia and the Danelaw, Appleby Magna Village (null) (verified 2018-10-02)

The above links were selected and reviewed at the time I prepared the information, but please be aware their content may vary, or disappear entirely. These factors are outside my control.